


these things we were meant to do (were they ever enough for you?)

by queerio_gaymer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, as she would being a Luthor and all, as you are when you find out you're an engineered bioweapon, lena gets it, reign is angsty, whelp this is already an au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-06 15:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11603850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerio_gaymer/pseuds/queerio_gaymer
Summary: Reign fights. She fights because she is a weapon, because brutality is what she was built for. She fights Supergirl because the guardian of National City is in the way of her conquering.Reign doesn’t remember, because she wasn’t meant to remember. It burns, smolders beneath her skin, this question - why? Why is she a worldkiller, why does she have this bloodthirst for destruction? What does it mean? Who is she?The answers evade her. They have evaded her for years, no matter how she has searched, salted the earth to flush out the truth.So Reign fights. Because - she might not know who she is, but she knows what.That will have to be enough.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> reigncorp rising woot woot
> 
> I had an idea and ran with it. It went...farther than I expected.

Reign fights. She fights because she is a weapon, because brutality is what she was built for. She fights Supergirl because the guardian of National City is in the way of her conquering.

****

Reign doesn’t remember, because she wasn’t meant to remember. It burns, smolders beneath her skin, this question - _why?_ Why is she a worldkiller, why does she have this bloodthirst for destruction? What does it mean?

****

Who is she?

****

The answers evade her. They have evaded her for years, no matter how she has searched, salted the earth to flush out the truth.

****

So Reign fights. Because - she might not know who she is, but she knows _what._

****

That will have to be enough.

****

* * *

****

It is not enough.

****

* * *

****

Reign starts targeting Supergirl. Kara grows worried, which by proxy piques Lena’s interest. National City has seen its share of villains, who have given Supergirl various degrees of trouble. But.

****

_This one is different_ , Kara says quietly, eyes distant and troubled behind her glasses.

****

Lena doesn’t ask why. Kara doesn’t tell her.

****

(There’s a lot Kara hasn’t been telling her, recently. The distance hurts. Kara apologizes, repeatedly, but the distance grows and it _hurts._ )

****

* * *

****

Supergirl knows something. Reign can feel it in the air between them when they fight. It stings her skin like lightening.

****

‘Knowledge is power,’ isn’t that what these humans say? Reign dislikes fighting at a disadvantage, and this - this knowledge, this power, is meant to be hers.

****

Reign fights harder, unleashes all she has onto Supergirl.

****

It is almost enough.

****

Reign is getting very, very tired of _almost._

****

* * *

****

National City doesn’t know much about Reign, but the city comforts itself by telling its citizens they know what they need to. She is here to conquer, to wreck havoc; those are the pressing facts. What more is there to know?

****

More, Lena learns. There is always more.

****

* * *

****

Reign cannot win by brute force. So she thinks. In battle, if her weapon is ineffective against an enemy, she would change her weapon. So that is what she does.

****

Luckily, Supergirl has a weakness.

****

Unluckily, Reign has the same one.

****

Kryptonite.

****

* * *

****

It takes awhile (and Reign detests waiting) but she gets her hands on the substance.

****

It hurts.

****

But Reign is used to hurting.

****

* * *

****

The showdown between Reign and Supergirl is televised. The breaking news team scrambles to keep up with the two aliens, and from her laptop screen, Lena struggles to do the same.

****

Reign attacks National City’s hero with Kryptonite, even though it is obvious from her pale skin and trembling muscles that the element affects her too.

****

Lena is confused, but there is a recognizable pain in Reign’s eyes and - Lena wonders.

****

She wonders _why._

****

* * *

****

It is not a fight as much as a brawl. They are both weak, shaky, barely able to stand. Reign is close to collapse, but she feeds her anger, tells herself Supergirl knows she knows sheknows.

****

It is enough.

****

_Why are you doing this?_ Supergirl asks, but Reign sees the ghost of an answer in the hero’s eyes.

****

She knows she knows she knows.

****

_Who am I?!_ Reign screams, voice tearing through her throat like fire. She punches Supergirl, pushes her to the ground. _Tell me who I am!_

****

_I don’t know!_ Supergirl whispers, tears in her eyes.

****

But it is a lie.

****

She knows.

****

* * *

****

Lena’s stomach turns at the violence, and she almost closes her laptop. The camera crew cannot get close enough to hear the two fighters’ voices, so all she is watching - all the city is watching - is a desperate fisticuffs.

****

But then, as suddenly as it began, the attack stops.

****

* * *

****

Reign wraps her hands around Supergirl’s throat, and at last, at last, she gets her answer.

****

And, fittingly: it hurts.

****

* * *

****

Lena watches, brows furrowed, as Reign stumbles to her feet. The woman takes fumbling steps. She is white-lipped in anger, a goddess of fury, and that raw emotion seems to sustain her, granting her renewed strength. The police - or agents, Lena can’t quite tell - try to confront her.

****

Reign stares them down, and the news crew is close enough to catch what she says before she runs, escaping into the night.

****

_I was made for this._

 

 

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the kudos and comments :) I'm glad people are already aboard the Reigncorp train lol.
> 
> Notes:  
> -I've changed the expected chapters to '?' - I expect there will be another chapter or two, but maybe more??  
> -some unreliable narrator  
> -I think that's it...

* * *

 

Reign disappears for a few weeks. Lena expects Kara to be relieved, but the reporter is more stressed than before. She admits to it being over Reign, and Lena is glad for the honesty. She suggests leaving it for Supergirl to worry over.

****

Kara smiles, shallow and empty. _I will._

****

Lena can feel the growing gulf yawning between them. She has no idea how it got to be there, or how to bridge it.

****

It hurts.

****

* * *

****

A month goes by. Kara is not the only one tense - Supergirl stops by L-Corp. It’s late. Later than what Lena should be here. Later than what Supergirl should be here (but then, she’s the darling hero of National City - doesn’t she belong everywhere?).

****

Lena asks her why she’s come, her voice rough, but her day had been rougher. All her days had been, recently.

****

Supergirl frowns, something like sadness in her eyes but heavier, which Lena writes off as pity. It makes her bristle.

****

Supergirl is suddenly reticent, but explains somewhat haltingly. She wants a weapon, something to fight Reign with. _When she comes back,_ Supergirl says, not if. She sounds hauntingly certain that Reign will return, and Lena’s mind flashes back to the fight, to the words unheard.

****

_I don’t want to hurt her,_ Supergirl finishes, arms crossed over her chest.

****

Lena knows she doesn’t. Just as she knows that Reign will end up hurt, regardless. Because if she attacks, Supergirl will be there to strike her down. Because Supergirl is a hero, and Reign is a villain, and between the two there can be nothing but hurt.

****

It is the tragedy of villainhood. (And Lena Luthor knows all the lines.)

****

_Don’t you have your own people for this kind of thing?_ The question is sharp, too sharp, and Lena tries to blunt it with a raised eyebrow and tired attempt at a smile.

****

Supergirl looks at her, and there’s something dark in her eyes. Some spectre that Lena almost recognizes.

****

_I’m asking you._

****

It hits Lena suddenly, why. It takes the dregs of her remaining composure not to laugh bitterly.

****

Because I’m a Luthor, she thinks. Because anti-alien weapons are what Luthors are good for. (Her heart clenches painfully, but she ignores it - has been ignoring it for quite some time now.) What she says instead, face a perfect mask, is _I’ll need a genetic sample._

****

Supergirl’s expression falls, so Lena amends. _Or a sample from a similar alien._

****

Supergirl hesitates, staring down at her hands. The blonde’s struggling with a decision, but what, Lena doesn’t know. She’s too exhausted to care. (Which is a lie; she has yet to figure out how to stop caring.)

****

Lena stifles a sigh. _I’ll see what I can do._

****

* * *

****

The days pass.

****

Kara is withdrawn, but then her boyfriend returns. She starts to reschedule lunch dates with Lena. She apologizes, and Lena tells her it’s fine with a practiced, professional smile (when was the last time she used a business smile on Kara?).

****

Lena skips lunch on those days.

****

The days pass slower.

****

* * *

 

Reign spends her time trying not to fight, and when that doesn’t pan out, trying not to conquer. She lies low, as low as someone like her can. She skips town, dresses in a leather jacket and dark jeans, and tries on different dive bars for size.

****

She can't get drunk on booze, so she settles on adrenaline instead.

****

She doesn't always start the fights. They happen, because she goes to the places where desperation and aggression mix with alcohol. Reign glares and chooses razor-sharp words, twisting them like knives to get her desired outcome. Or, she’s leered at and overhears foul words she mutes with her fists.

****

Every night it’s somewhere new, but after a few nights they blur together.

****

Reign grows sick of it, sick of trying to find purposelessness in the bottom of someone else’s bottle.

****

It isn’t enough.

****

* * *

****

Reign stops going out, and starts making plans.

****

* * *

****

Lena throws herself into her work. Work isn’t _easy_ (easy is something she signed away when she became CEO, something that was signed away for her when she became a _Luthor_ ). But there’s a logic to it, an internalized “if that, do this” that Lena appreciates. Outside of L-Corp, that logic dissipates, and there are so many unknown, confounding variables in Lena’s life now.

****

Work is a constant, and Lena wonders when the equation started to look unsolvable. But she halts that line of inquiry, because she knows the answer.

****

Just not the solution.

****

* * *

****

Reign returns.

****

* * *

****

Lena is working late. The night sky looms outside her office window, starless.

****

Lena checks the time on her phone and winces. She shuffles the paperwork on her desk into an order she can hopefully decipher in the morning, and gathers her things to leave.

****

The click of her heels echo in the dead silence of the halls. The elevator music croons softly, and Lena closes her eyes, the threads of a tension headache knotting behind her eyes.

****

She walks into the lobby. Everything is still.

****

Lena almost overlooks the other woman, but she has a presence, a gravity, and Lena’s gaze falls to her.

****

* * *

****

Reign has been waiting, sprawled on a barely comfortable lobby armchair, when finally, _finally,_ her target shows up.

****

* * *

****

Reign is lounging on one of the lobby chairs, legs kicked up over one of the chair’s arms. She’s changed out of her combat outfit, wearing a scuffed leather jacket, a close-fitting tank top of a band Lena hasn’t heard of (and she’ll bet Reign hasn’t either), dark denim jeans, and...converse. On top of her head, pushed up in her hair, rests a pair of cheap hipster glasses.

****

Lena almost doesn’t recognize Reign, but there’s a danger that warps the air around her. And Lena knows danger.

****

Lena’s step falters, but she steels herself, glances surreptitiously for any of her security guards, and walks towards the villain.

****

* * *

****

Lena Luthor. Reign matches the name to the woman walking steadily toward her, head held high and eyes flashing. Reign is almost impressed, but she’s learned appearances can be deceiving.

****

Reign doesn’t get up, doesn’t shift at all, letting the human come to her. And, against what Reign would assume is her better judgement, the other woman does.

****

_I know who you are,_ Lena says, stopping a few paces away.

****

Reign smirks, at the same time as she thinks, I am not a who.

****

* * *

****

Reign smirks at her, and there is a warning hidden there that Lena does not have the option to heed, and is too proud to besides.

****

Her eyes lock on Lena’s own, and her stare is mesmerizing, swirling with emotions knows but can’t name.

****

* * *

****

Reign stands, stepping closer until she is toe to toe with the human. With Lena. The CEO’s chin tilts up to keep stubborn eye contact. There is fear in her eyes, but also a fiery defiance.

  
_Good,_ she says. _Then I’ll make this quick._


End file.
